Prospects cost $4.5 million now

Somewhat lost in the excitement over seeing the A’s trade Jason Kendall to someone — anyone — was exactly how much they paid to get rid of him, and what it means for upcoming deals.

The AP reported the A’s will send the wealthy Cubs $4.5 million of the $5.4 million he’s owed over the rest of the season.

Why? Was it worth getting rid of Kendall just to save $900,000?

It may sound like a lot of money, but it’s not in baseball terms. With the minimum salary up to $380,000, whoever fills that roster spot would have earned about $140,000 for the rest of the season anyway. That takes the savings down to about $760,000. Adam Melhuse makes more than that.

Kendall wasn’t helping the team win, but whether he liked it or not, his services as a catching tutor for Kurt Suzuki and backup catcher might have been worth $760,000. You can’t call the trade a salary dump when the A’s barely dumped salary at all.

So why did they do it?

Rob Bowen is essentially worthless (if his mom is reading this, I mean strictly in a financial sense). He had been designated for assignment; the A’s only took him because they need a backup for Suzuki now anyway.

The key to the deal is the minor-league relief pitcher, Jerry Blevins. He’s a nice prospect, a 6-foot-6 lefty who’s doing a great job in AA, with 69 Ks and only 13 walks in 52 innings.

But Blevins doesn’t project as a closer, according to Baseball America, which says he’s likely to wind up as a middle reliever.

This means, in essence, the A’s paid $4.5 million for a left-handed middle-relief prospect: a potentially better version of Ricardo Rincon.

Don’t misunderstand: I’m not saying this is crazy or wrong or that I wouldn’t have done it. I’m astonished that the A’s got anything of value for the worst hitter in MLB.

But if a left-handed middle relief prospect is worth $4.5 million on the open market these days, we might have to severely downsize our expectations of what the A’s can land for Mike Piazza, Dan Johnson or Shannon Stewart.